I'm not avoiding you all!

Yes, you all. . . all 4 of you who actually read this. I'm not trying to be a slacker, it's just every time I sit down to post after I've gone through all the excuses I have, that nothing's been posted for a month I lose all of my motivation. . . close the window, and then proceed to check everyone else's blogs. Then I complain to myself about how you all need to post more often so I can know what's going on in your worlds. Yeah, that's really what I do. I pretty much check everyone's blogs at least daily, sometimes a little more often. . . Thank goodness for people who are really on top of things and keep me entertained and up to date (Marsing). Well now is about the point I'd start checking everyone elses blogs, but I've made up my mind to keep going today. There are far to many things to catch you all up on so I'm just going to pretend like I already caught you up. . . not good enough, oh stop complaining and update your own blogs!!
Wow, what a meanie. I guess I'll try and do a recap. Where shall we start?
Christmas. . . yes that's usually a good place full of fun traditions and happy memories right? Well we've started a tradition this year, hmm I guess really it was last year when the whole family had the flu on and around Christmas. We decided it was so much fun that we'd like to do it again. Elliott started us off, and was puking all night long, and into the morning of the 22rd. After we went through all the sheets, blankets, and pj's we had. Having no where else to go that was clean I thought I'll just hold him on our bed. Yeah I can hear you saying that was dumb. . . yes it was but in my defense after a night of no sleep and lots of puke I can safely say I was really not thinking straight. So, after about two minuets of doing alright he puked all over me, and the only sheets in the house that had not been soiled the night before. It was horrible, but he seemed to improve little by little through the day. I had to work on that day, the 23rd and thought he was doing well enough that I didn't need to worry. He indeed did get much better, I on the other hand who have never been sick on a plane in my life, spent more of my trip in the lavatory then helping my co-worker work. . . I called Mark when I got in and he was busy being sick too. . . so the majority of our Christmas Eve was spent rotating between the couch (when I finally got home) and the bathroom! Much to our surprise we woke up Christmas morning all feeling well! We call it a tender mercy, I think had we been sick we would have just skipped the whole thing. We did well all through the day and got to spend it with the Quayle family, loved the whole day! We missed the Fuller's but enjoyed the day as a family! Elliott LOVED the cars he got for Christmas and pretty much refused to let them out of his site or grip the whole day! We were feeling so good, we did the annual 5k run that we were too sick to do on Christmas Eve. Things were really looking up, Elliott was happy, we were happy. . . but in the middle of the night the sick we were all so excited to get rid of re-visited and Mark and I were sick all day on the 26th, then Elliott and Nana started again that night. . . It was a mess. I won't go through it all because i'm sure you're ready to move on to nicer things. So, in a nutshell that was our Christmas.
Ok, New Year's!! It's got to be better right?! Here it is! Had to drive to Atlanta to work, slept in the crew lounge, and worked all New Years day!! Wahhoooo! It was a little sad, but it's actually been a blessing in disguise because I haven't had to work much this month!
Since New Year's we got to go to the Barnes Family's house, and have another Christmas celebration, no sickness, and lots of snow to play in! It was wonderful! I had to work the next week, and found out that my base in Atlanta will be closing on March 1st a bit of a blow to us. We've gotten to love me flying out of Atlanta, the option to drive makes commuting to work so much less of a headache! We're trying to be positive about the change. . . not always easy, I'll be based in Chicago starting in March, and then maybe jumping bases to Salt Lake City if it doesn't work out. Other than that we've been pretty much home bound this month. Elliott has found out that we have a back yard. . . and even better it has a POOL!! Ok, but his version of a pool is a little cement kidney bean shaped pond that's about 2 feet deep, it's full of gross leaves and muck, with a frog here and there. . . He loves it. It's been fun to see how much he loves the outdoors. He's decided to add the little engine that could to his list of favorite things, and has started LOVING the zoo. We've been running a lot this month, and Mark and I have been running together which is so much more fun that running alone! We're running a 10k in April, and then running a 1/2 marathon in June. We're really excited about it! Hmmmm other updates. . . Oh I have convinced my husband that he needs to have an international first class experience, and he has lovingly conceded to go to ITALY with me next weekend!! So if flights stay open that's where we'll be running our long run next Saturday! I'm looking very forward to that! In February I'll be going to Minnesota for a fun girls weekend! So much to look forward to I'll soon be able to forget our traumatic Christmas tradition of getting sick! OH yeah and I'm going to be one step closer to being 30!! I get to celebrate 29 years of amazing experiences on the 7th, anyone want to have a party with me?? We're going to be adopting my Aunt Jan's view on birthdays this year and for the rest of our years. All week birthday celebrations!! I'm totally worth it! Ok, this is really getting way too long!! Hope you are all well! Much love from our little corner!
Here are a few pictures to keep you interested!

Mark trying to put Elliott's car wagon together. He didn't want to get out of it!

Elliott it's really how he rides. Note the two cars in the cup holder, he refuses to go with out at least two other cars riding along!

This is actually a couple days after Christmas when Mark's mom remembered that we forgot to take a picture in front of the tree with Minnie (the 18year old family pet)we've been pretty sure for about 4 years that she won't make another Christmas but she keeps proving us wrong!
Little man Alex. I love this picture! He looks so annoyed!Elliott enjoying his second Christmas celebration, with donuts for breakfast!
Then a drink of milk. I love his bed head!
I just thought this picture was so cute! As you can see someone lost her two front teeth!!
I have to show these, I made the girls aprons for Christmas, I think they turned out pretty cute!


Here's a few of all of us in the snow!
Well there you have it, you're up dated. I'll try to do better, with so many exciting things coming up I should have lots to talk about!